My good friend and her husband (who is a very smart guy that happens to be a general contractor) came over for dinner on Friday night.  They knew ahead of time that we wanted to pick his brain about possibly adding on to our house.  He has lots of experience and was able to share tons of knowledge about all of the options, whether it be adding on to our existing home or buying a new home and renting ours out (which is something that we’ve certainly never given much thought).  He advised against building a home right now, as the market is saturated with homes as it is.  Sure, we can do a lot of the work to fix a place up, but time gets in the way eventually.  Money too. 

We’ve been trying to figure out how to do the dance of buying and selling a home at the same time.  It seems like some great luck or an act of God to time that sort of thing just right.  What if we put our house on the market and it sold immediately, and we had nowhere to go?  Or worse, what if we found a house that we just couldn’t pass up, then our house sat on the market for months and months or more, leaving us with 2 mortgage payments?  He pretty much convinced us that there isn’t much to renting and as long as you check the potential tenant’s credit, you can more or less rest easy that they won’t tear up your stuff.  So in the second scenario I mentioned, I guess renting would be an option.

But back to adding on to our existing home – we talked all weekend about our ideas and how we could customize each and every detail.  It would be so rewarding to do a good portion of the work ourselves.  We’re thinking that we would only have to hire someone to do the exterior and to finish the drywall on the interior (because let’s face it, that’s an ART).  We came up with a rough plan to add a real laundry room (and building a pantry where the washer and dryer sit now – in the kitchen) and a master suite, complete with a walk-in closet and a full bathroom.  Glorious.

Right now, our cute little 1961 traditional ranch is feeling a little small.  It’s okay for now, but all of my clothes are in the guest bedroom closet or the dresser in the guest bedroom.  Not such a big deal until we have the next kid…who will have to live in the hallway or something because right now, there’s just no room for any more STUFF.  So anyway, we need to do something, whether that means moving or adding on.  Right now my heart is telling me to add on instead of moving away.  We have a great yard and we love the location of our home.  Some people want to be out in the middle of nowhere…not me.  A dealbreaker for me has always been that I have to be able to get to Target just as easily as Walmart because I don’t do Walmart.  At all.  (As it turns out, we do live closer to a Walmart than Target but not by much.  That’s beside the point…).

The thought of adding on excites me.  It’s an adventure waiting to be had.  I don’t know for sure if that’s what we will end up doing.  We are still looking at homes online and considering the home of a cousin’s cousin that isn’t on the market yet.  It’s good to have options!

~C~

Earlier this year, I turned 30.  My entire life, even right up until I turned 30, I thought 30 was old.  There were times when I felt old, but 30 has always meant officially old.  There are things you just can’t (well, shouldn’t) get away with anymore when you are 30.  30 means responsibility.  Retirement savings.  Financial planning.  The occasional bodily ailment.  The more than occasional gray hair.  Minivans and selflessly cleaning up other people’s messes. Needless to say, I had been dreading 30 ever since I realized that I wasn’t going to be young forever.

30 came.  30 went.  We had a great little get-together with some family and close friends.  I waited for reality to set in.  I gave it about 10 minutes’ thought and came to a realization (and breathed a contented sigh of relief).

I took a little inventory of my life at age 30 and guess what?  It’s not so bad.  If we’re all so lucky, we will all turn 30 and 40 and so on, so why get bent out of shape about getting older?  Of course we are going to get older, and really, do we want to be stuck in time?  Life moves on, and so do we.  So I’m happy to be able to reach 30 and have my health.  I gave birth to the most beautiful little baby boy 2 months before my 30th birthday and I could not ask for more than everything he is in a baby.  He has added so much more joy to my life.  I have a husband that I adore, even if we don’t get to spend as much time together as we’d like.  We don’t live paycheck to paycheck.  We share a cute and modest home that we are proud to own (or are in the process of owning) and have improved little by little with our own hands (and the help of a few other hands).  I have graduated from college, which is one of my proudest personal achievements.  I feel loved equally by my family of origin as I do by the family I have married into.  I have the most sincere and wonderful friends I’ve ever had in my life.  None of these things make my life especially remarkable or extraordinary, but they are the little accomplishments that carry me through time from one day to the next, one week to the next, and one year to the next, with a smile on my face and contentment in my soul.

Maybe if my inventory experiment left me feeling empty, I’d take the time to pity myself for turning 30.  But when I step back and take a look at my life, I’m happy.  Sure, there are things I would change here and there, but when push comes to shove, I have everything I need.  Bring on the (occasional) gray hair, the (few and far between) wrinkles, and (extra) candles on the cake because I’m 30.  And I can definitely rock 30.

~C~

We’re having a major dilemma at our house.

We love our house.  It’s cozy and comfortable.  It’s a 50 year old brick ranch with beautifully restored original hardwoods.  There are some charming features, such as the crank out windows, the radio/intercom speakers in every room (mind you, the house is less than 1500 sq. ft, so the intercom system is completely unnecessary…but cute), and the smaller details such as the unique ceiling pattern in every room.  We also love the neighborhood, with its 50 foot tall trees and sprawling yards.  No two homes are the same but they have a certain corresponding 1960s personality.  On top of all this, the location is perfect for us.  What’s not to love?

How about the not-so-charming tiny closets…or the single solitary bathtub?  We also don’t love the tiny garage that we can barely fit both cars in (forget about the contortionist act that we put on when it’s time to get out of the car).  Our closets are so small that I have to put my clothes in dresser and closet of the guest bedroom.  So what are we supposed to do when we have another kid?  Unload both of them in the driveway, take them in, then pull the car in?  Buy a rolling wardrobe rack to keep in the hallway for my clothes?  Take 2 hours to bathe everyone in our family (not to mention how long it already takes when we have overnight guests)? Simply put, we’re out of space in this sweet little starter home.